aliquid,) interfecti Israelis, sic Babyloni cadent interfecti totius terrae.
JOHN CALVIN that all created things, though without reason and understanding, would yet be full of joy, so that they would, in a manner, rejoice and sing praise. If such would be the feeling in dead creatures, when God put forth his hand against Babylon, would it be possible for that city to remain safe, which was so hated by heaven and earth, and which was accursed by birds and wild beasts, by trees, and everything void of understanding!
We hence see that the Prophet heaps together all kinds of figures and modes of speaking, in order to confirm weak minds, so that they might confidently look forward to the destruction of Babylon. He at the same time intimates that Babylon was hated by all creatures, because it had reached to the highest pitch of wickedness. He then shows the cause by the effect, as though he had said that Babylon was hated by heaven and earth, so that heaven and earth seemed as though they deemed themselves in a manner polluted by the sight of that city. As long, then, as Babylon stood, heaven and earth sighed: but, on the contrary, when God appeared as an avenger, then heaven and earth, and all things in them, would shout with joy. Could it then be that God, the judge of the world, would always connive at its sins? If heaven and earth could not endure it, and Babylon was so loathsome to all, and joy would arise from its destruction, could God possibly allow that city, filled with so many sins, and detested by heaven and earth, to escape with impunity his judgment?
We now, then, more fully understand why the Prophet says that triumph and joy would be in heaven and earth, and among all created things.
He says, because; but the particle {,}כיki, may be taken for an adverb of time: then he says, when from the north shall come wasters He alludes to the Medes, for the Persians were eastward. But as the Medes were nigher, and also their monarch hr wealthier, the Prophet refers especially to the Medes when he says that evil would come from the north. For the Medes were north of Chaldea, as the Persians were eastward.
PRAYER
Grant, Almighty God, that since thou not only testifiest to us that thou wilt be the Redeemer of thy Church, into which thou hast been pleased to introduce us, but hast also really manifested thyself to us in thine only-begotten Son, --- O grant that we may patiently bear all the contests and afflictions by which thou now provest our faith, and that we may perseveringly fight under the cross, until, having gone through all our trials, we shall at length enjoy eternal glory, when we shall find thee to be our complete Redeemer, through the same Christ Jesus our Lord. --- Amen.
LECTURE ONE HUNDRED AND NINETY SECOND
Jeremiah 51:49
49. As Babylon hath caused the slain of Israel to fall, so at Babylon shall fall the slain of all the earth.
49. Sicuti Babylon ut caderent (hoc est, fecit ut caderent, subaudiendum est aliquid,) interfecti Israelis, sic Babyloni cadent interfecti totius terrae.
THE words literally read thus, ``As Babylon, that they might fall, the slain of Israel, so for Babylon they shall fall, the slain of all the lands.'' Some, omitting the {,}ל lamed, in the second clause, render the passage thus, ``As the slain of Israel have